Changes in land cover and urban sprawl in Ireland from a comparative perspective over 1990–2012

In this article, we first summarise trends of land use changes and urbanisation in Ireland since 1990 using data from the Corine Land Cover program. In doing so, we compare the developments in Ireland with other European countries. Second, we propose a statistical test for the presence of sprawl using conditional and unconditional convergence tests. The two-part empirical analysis allows us to establish that Ireland has experienced a substantial loss of non-urban land in recent decades. Furthermore, a significant share of urban land use has been extended to remote areas, thereby exacerbating sprawl.